Obviously I don’t have the regard for the RCC that the author does, but this would be a good question for a reporter. Not that any who have been granted access to the candidates would dare ask such a question or even consider it.

I consider you both to be in good company, because I didn’t watch either for fear of getting sick. My plan didn’t work, however, because this morning I heard about some racist clown throwing peanuts at a black camerawoman and generally making the GOP proud.

Yesterday, Priebus opened up the convention by once again saying the president hasn’t “seen the inside of a lemonade stand.” And by later in the evening, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) joined the fun, arguing that Obama “has never even run a lemonade stand.”

It’s deeply tiresome, but the point of this strange talking point is that the president, according to Republicans, didn’t work in the private sector before getting involved in public service. Vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan also never worked in the private sector before getting involved in public service, but apparently, that’s not supposed to matter.

But even putting that aside, there are two broad problems with the argument. The first is, it’s not true.

Obama held a number of retail and food service jobs as a teenager in Hawaii — including scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins, which technically doesn’t serve lemonade but it does have a pink raspberry lemonade sorbet….

As a young man, Obama worked an ice-cream shop, a deli, and a gift shop. As an adult, Obama worked at a private sector law firm and at “a New York City company that helped American companies do business abroad — exactly the kind of experience Romney is accusing Obama of lacking.”

And the second problem is, this argument is four years too late. If the underlying point is that Obama is an inexperienced presidential candidate the time to make that case was in 2008, when he only had four years of statewide office under his belt. In 2012, the attack is just silly — Obama’s not inexperienced anymore; he’s run the executive branch of the United States during a time of foreign and domestic crises. Obama may not have led a business before getting elected, but he’s led a nation after getting elected.

You have to remember the maxim that says that if you tell a lie enough times, eventually, it will be accepted as truth. That is the real problem with Citizens United…now there is an almost unlimited amount of anonymous money available to perpetuate lies. Want to cringe? It’s works. Remember Switfboating?

BTW, does anybody know what the story is behind a book supposedly written by a Navy SEAL that is critical to the President? The little I have seen makes it look like another “swifboating” scheme.

I happened to walk into a room that had the very end of the RNC, and the abject failure of the media really hit me hard.

I realized that an honest reporter would be saying something like,

“The GOP can probably count this event as a success. The air is electric amid the pomp and circumstance. The crowd is fired up. The thinly veiled racism, the explicit rhetoric in favor of dismantling our education system and enriching the rich at the expense of the poor, the propaganda and blatant lies, the uncomfortable blurring of religion and politics, the bigotry against homosexuals and Muslims – all of it seems to not only remain palatable to the Republican base, but is cause for great elation.

One cannot but help be reminded of some of the most terrible authoritarian regimes in the past and how it might have looked as it grew to power. You’ve probably read some of the history, probably seen some of the images and films. A throng of people. Normal people. People with families and jobs and children. People who would say hello to you in the supermarket. Mostly decent, competent people. All gathered before a leader or set of leaders spouting the most vile and evil polemics designed to sway otherwise decent people into action. Fear-mongering screed composed to set the follower against their own best interest.

The power of power.

Back to you in the studio.”

Instead, it’s smiles and platitudes and false equivalence and cowardice because Rupert, or someone like him, signs the paycheck at the end of the day.

Disheartening, disgusting and, as if one weren’t already, disillusioning.

@ #13
I guess that there is something positive about the “death of traditional media” that has been going on for some time. There is no Walter Cronkite or Ed Morrow just press releases and sycophants. There are other ways people are getting news, how effective they are has yet to be determined but it is possible.
The question is will it be effective enough or will the power of lies repeated often enough prove the better this time?

One cannot but help be reminded of some of the most terrible authoritarian regimes in the past and how it might have looked as it grew to power.

Agreed. And you are not the only one to have noticed.

One of Paul Krugman’s points noted the false claim that Obama had gutted the work requirement for welfare. The way this lie is sold, how it skips merrily past the fact checkers and the portions of the media that still have some integrity — that’s a story worth looking into.

Last Sunday’s New York Times even reported on its front page that Romney has been “falsely charging” President Obama with removing the work requirement. Those are strong words from the venerable Times. Yet Romney is still making the false charge. Ads containing it continue to be aired.

Presumably the Romney campaign continues its false claims because they’re effective. But this raises a more basic question: How can they remain effective when they’ve been so overwhelmingly discredited by the media?

The answer is the Republican Party has developed three means of bypassing the mainstream media and its fact-checkers.

The first is by repeating big lies so often in TV spots – financed by a mountain of campaign money – that the public can no longer recall (if it ever knew) that the mainstream media and its fact-checkers have found them to be lies.

The second is by discrediting the mainstream media – asserting it’s run by “liberal elites” that can’t be trusted to tell the truth….

The third is by using its own misinformation outlets – led by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and his yell-radio imitators, book publisher Regnery, and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, along with a right-wing blogosphere – to spread the lies, or at least spread doubt about what’s true.

Together, these three mechanisms are creating a parallel Republican universe of Orwellian dimension – where anything can be asserted, where pollsters and political advisers are free to create whatever concoction of lies will help elect their candidate, and where “fact-checkers” are as irrelevant and intrusive as is the truth.

Democracy cannot thrive in such a place. To the contrary, history teaches that this is where demagogues take root….

Once again The Authoritarians dominates my head space when this closed system of right-wing misinformation is discussed. When 70% of Fox News watchers say they only watch Fox News for “news”.

We’ve seen what is the natural progression for authoritarians and the “double highs” that lead them. The followers only want to be told what they have already been told is true, and their leaders only want to rile them into action for their own benefit – by telling them want they have already been told and believe.

Once trusted and once the system is closed, they leader can say whatever they want and have it be held as true, or at least likely true, or at worst just possible.

It is inevitable the closed system of information/indoctrination/propaganda is going to grow and grow and grow. The desired end result, of course, is that the entire country, the entire system is designed to deliver the authoritarian leaders message – where any other message is straight illegal.

Once trusted and once the system is closed, they leader can say whatever they want and have it be held as true, or at least likely true, or at worst just possible.

Exactly. And the disinformation campaign is having an effect. One example: In Iowa, a key 2012 battleground, President Obama’s lead is down to just two points over Mitt Romney, 47% to 45%. In May, Obama was ahead by 10 points.

A few Republicans have been badgered by the press until they concede that the welfare lie on which Romney is now leaning heavily is false.

Newt Gingrich said there was “no proof” to support Romney’s claim, but still argues that Obama and the Dems intend to gut welfare’s work requirements.

Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas as forced into a similar concession when MSNBC’s Chris Jansing wouldn’t let him dodge the question.

“[F]act checkers have called these ads and these statements erroneous. So why are so many Republicans still making this argument?” Brownback largely dodged the question, so the host followed up. “But you agree these claims that the work requirement has been abolished are false?” she asked.

“As far as I have seen,” Brownback conceded.

Romney political director Rich Beeson was on NPR yesterday, and Steve Inskeep highlighted the dishonesty of the claim. Beeson would only laugh — audibly — and say “reasonable people can have a disagreement over this.”

First, racially-charge lies aren’t funny. Second, “reasonable people” should be able to agree to at least try to tell the truth, and to stop repeating a lie once it’s been exposed as a lie.

“This summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare,” Santorum said, referring to Obama.

“I helped write the welfare reform bill; we made the law crystal-clear: No president can waive the work requirement. But as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law.”

I really wish I could ignore politics south of the border. Everything I hear makes me sad or highly frustrated. But I cannot ignore it for both pragmatic reasons, what happens in the US matters to Canadians and the rest of the world and affects us, and because of how it affects Americans that are thoughtful, reasonable and care about truth. But dammit, it is depressing. I recently reread The Authoritarians and it has done nothing to help my disposition, it just reminded me how scary many people are.

I agree with Krugman.
and more.
The current crop of Republicans (sic) are nothing more than bald-faced liars. They lie not by necessity but by preference.
They’ve come to believe the Lenin maxim that a lie told often enough and with sincerity will eventually be taken to be the truth.
It’s as if a 3 year old ate the last of the chocolate, comes wandering into your room with chocolate all on his face, and when you ask him “did you eat the chocolate?” he shamelessly says “No” and then giggles and runs away. The GOP-baby needs a Time-Out.
(Well, we don’t spank children anymore… )

Insightful and well said. Personally, I don’t have much faith that the past decade or so of decentralizing media and communication in the forms of new technology, or new and emerging media forms and formats are going to have much impact on bending the ‘river of thought’, raising the social consciousness of the masses, etc.
I can’t help but feel that the past 30 years has provided enough of a foothold for money and power in the world to have effectively tipped the balance in their favor. It can be seen and measured in the polarity, divisiveness, ignorance, misplaced political and social priorities of the people.

No stranger to politics, Eastwood served as the Mayor of Carmel, California from 1986 to 1988. He supported John McCain in 2008 and endorsed Mitt Romney earlier this month at a Sun Valley fundraiser. “Now more than ever do we need Mitt Romney, I’m going to be voting for him,” the Oscar winner said as the GOP nominee stood next to him on August 4.